Information processing apparatus

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus obtains a distance that an input pen is moved in terms of the number of dots covered on a display screen, and from that number, judges whether a pen stroke is a gesture entry or a pointing entry. When the input pen is moved over more than a predetermined number of dots, e.g., eight dots, gesture recognition processing is performed. If the input pen is moved less than that number of dots, a pointing instruction is recognized, and pointing processing is performed. If a gesture is recognized, a recognized gesture editing command and a feature point of the gesture command are stored in RAM. Since an input by the input pen is judged a gesture entry or a pointing entry according to the number of dots over which the input pen is moved, a switch is not required to change data/instruction entry modes which reduces cost and improves handling.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatuscapable of editing a document displayed on a screen by handwriting usinga pen.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A conventional information processing apparatus, such as a wordprocessor and a computer, often employs keyboard entry. In such aninformation processing apparatus, when editing a document, for example,a character or a block of text to be edited is specified by moving acursor using the keyboard, and a desired editing operation is executedusing edit keys.

In recent years, an apparatus, which enables data entry by directlypointing a screen provided with a tablet by means of a pen for inputtingcoordinates, has been developed. There is an apparatus of this typehaving a gesture function to edit a document by handwriting. With thisapparatus, when a line as an edit symbol is drawn on the screen with apen, an editing operation specified by a command corresponding to thepattern of the line is performed. Such an information processingapparatus generally does not use a cursor, or switches between cursormovements and gesture entry using a pen provided with a switch.

However, with conventional word processors, generally, cursors are usedwhen executing operations. Therefore, if there is no cursor, i.e.,pointing means, a drawback occurs in terms of handling. Moreover, it isnot desirable to provide a switch on the pen as it causes an increase inthe cost and requires troublesome switching operations.

Moreover, a conventional editing operation using a gesture has thefollowing drawbacks.

First drawback is that a great deal of effort is required to learnediting techniques. More specifically, a method of specifying charactersto be edited varies depending on commands. Therefore, the user needs tolearn the pattern of a line representing each command and a specifyingmethod corresponding to each command. In the case of a command to deleteone character by drawing a mountain-like line, for example, if the peakof the mountain shape is arranged to be a reference location forediting, the mountain peak of the line is needed to drawn over thecharacter to be edited.

The second drawback is an inefficient editing process. In conventionalgesture entry, putting down a pen on a screen to draw a line and liftingup the pen from the screen after drawing are treated as a singleprocess. Consequently, the effectiveness of an input by pen isdetermined after the pen is lifted up, resulting in longer processingtime.

In this case, if the input pen is moved into an area where gesture entryis unavailable, the gesture processing stops and an error message isgiven. Therefore, care needs to be taken throughout the input operation,i.e., from the start of drawing to the end of drawing, requiring rathercomplicated handling.

In order to effectively use the conventional gesture entry function, thetrace of the input pen and a list of edit commands are displayed.However, the processing time is increased because the display of thetrace of the input pen and the list of commands is caused to appear anddisappear repeatedly.

The third drawback is that edit processing becomes ineffective in thearea of the screen where editing by gesture entry is unavailable. Forexample, when the input pen is moved into the area, particularly into aninput area having icons, the input made in the input area is taken firstand therefore the input made to execute the gesture entry is cancelled.In this case, drawing must be started again by insuring that the inputpen does not pass through the area.

The fourth drawback is that mistaken handling likely causes editingerrors. For example, if an edit symbol for deletion is mistakenlyentered, a character or text is unnecessarily deleted. Extra time isrequired to restore the mistakenly deleted character or text.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an informationprocessing apparatus having an improved gesture function.

In order to achieve the above object, an information processingapparatus of the present invention includes:

a screen;

an input pen for inputting coordinates and drawing a line on the screen;

position detecting means for detecting coordinates of a position on thescreen where a pen point of the input pen makes contact with the screen;

reference-stroke storing means for storing a plurality of predeterminedreference strokes;

reference-stroke selecting means for comparing a pen stroke made on atext on the screen by the input pen with the reference strokes accordingto coordinates detected by the position detecting means and selecting areference stroke which is closest to the pen stroke;

processing means for editing the text according to an edit instructioncorresponding to the reference stroke selected by the reference-strokeselecting means and inputting coordinates of a position on the screenpointed by the input pen;

first distance judging means for judging whether a distance the inputpen is moved on the screen exceeds a predetermined distance; and

first processing selecting means for selecting a processing to beexecuted by the processing means by judging a pen movement which isshorter than the predetermined distance as coordinates input whileJudging a pen movement which is longer than the predetermined distanceas a pen stroke.

In the information processing apparatus, whether a movement of the inputpen exceeds a predetermined distance or not is judged by the firstdistance judging means. The distance the input pen was moved is given bythe number of dots. As for the predetermined distance used as areference for judgement, although a few dots are enough for indicating amovement of a cursor, it is desirable to determine the number of dotsfor the predetermined distance used as a reference for judgement byconsidering an unintentional movement of the pen point.

Next, processing to be performed by the processing means is selected bythe first processing selecting means. At this time, if a pen movement isjudged to be shorter than the predetermined distance, the pen movementis judged as coordinates input, and coordinate inputting processing isselected. On the other hand, if the pen movement is judged to be longerthan the predetermined distance, the pen movement is judged as a penstroke and edit processing is selected. When the coordinate inputtingprocessing is selected, the coordinate inputting processing includingmoving the cursor is executed by the processing means according to aninput position of the input pen.

When the edit processing is selected, the pen stroke made on the text onthe screen using the input pen is compared with the reference strokesstored in the reference-stroke storing means, according to thecoordinates detected by the position detecting means. When a referencestroke closest to the pen Stroke is selected by the comparison, editprocessing is executed by the processing means in accordance with anedit instruction corresponding to the selected reference stroke.

With the information processing apparatus, since the coordinates inputand edit processing are distinguished and executed according thedistance of a pen movement, there is no need to provide a switch on theinput pen for switching between coordinates input and edit processing.

In order to achieve the above object, another information processingapparatus of the present invention includes:

a screen;

an input pen for inputting coordinates and drawing a line on saidscreen;

position detecting means for detecting coordinates of a position on saidscreen where a pen point of said input pen makes contact with saidscreen;

reference-stroke storing means for storing a plurality of predeterminedreference strokes;

reference-stroke selecting means for comparing a pen stroke made on atext on the screen by the input pen with the reference strokes accordingto coordinates detected by the position detecting means and selecting areference stroke which is closest to the pen stroke;

processing means for editing the text according to an edit instructioncorresponding to the reference stroke selected by the reference-strokeselecting means and inputting coordinates of a position on the screenpointed by the input pen;

character checking means for judging whether a character on which saidinput pen is put down is a half-size letter or not;

second distance judging means for judging Whether a distance said inputpen is moved on said screen exceeds a predetermined distance whichvaries depending on whether the character is a half-size letter or not;and

second processing selecting means for selecting a processing to beexecuted by said processing means by judging a pen movement which isshorter than the predetermined distance as coordinates input whilejudging a pen movement which is longer than the predetermined distanceas a pen stroke.

When an input starting point is given by bringing the input pen intocontact with the screen, Whether a character on the input starting pointis a half-size letter or not is judged as the character checking means.If the character is a half-size letter, whether a pen movement exceeds apredetermined distance, for example, a half the distance used as areference by the first distance judging means or not is judged by thesecond distance judging means. If the character is not a half-sizeletter, whether the pen movement exceeds a predetermined distance, forexample, a distance used as a reference by the first distance judgingmeans or not is judged.

When the edit processing is selected, the pen stroke made on the text onthe screen using the input pen is compared with the reference strokesstored in the reference-stroke storing means, according to thecoordinates detected by the position detecting means. When a referencestroke closest to the pen stroke is selected by the comparison, editprocessing is executed in accordance with an edit instructioncorresponding to the selected reference stroke by the processing means.

Then, processing to be performed by the processing means is selected bythe second processing selecting means according to a judgement made bythe second distance judging means. When the coordinate inputtingprocessing is selected, coordinate input processing including moving thecursor is performed by the processing means according to the inputposition of the input pen. When the edit processing is selected, editprocessing is executed by the processing means in accordance with anedit instruction corresponding to the reference stroke selected by thereference-stroke selecting means.

Like the above-mentioned apparatus, with the information processingapparatus, since the coordinates input and edit processing aredistinguished and executed according the distance of a pen movement,there is no need to provide a switch on the input pen for switchingbetween coordinates input and edit processing. Moreover, with theinformation processing apparatus, a distance used as a reference forswitching the processing is varied depending on whether a character tobe edited is a half-size letter or not. Therefore, even when a characterto be edited is a small-size character such as a half-size letter, it ispossible to switch processing between coordinates input and editprocessing.

In order to achieve the above object, still another informationprocessing apparatus of the present invention includes:

a screen;

an input pen for inputting coordinates and drawing a line on saidscreen;

position detecting means for detecting coordinates of a position on saidscreen where a pen point of said input pen makes contact with saidscreen;

reference-stroke storing means for storing a plurality of predeterminedreference strokes;

reference-stroke selecting means for comparing a pen stroke made on atext on the screen by the input pen with the reference strokes accordingto coordinates detected by the position detecting means and selecting areference stroke which is closest to the pen stroke;

processing means for editing the text according to an edit instructioncorresponding to the reference stroke selected by the reference-strokeselecting means and inputting coordinates of a position on the screenpointed by the input pen; and

input judging means for judging whether inputting a pen stroke isavailable or not according to pen-down coordinates prior to the editprocessing, the pen-down coordinates representing a position on saidscreen where said input pen first made contact with said screen.

With the information processing apparatus, for example, if the positiondetecting means has an effective area where inputting a pen stroke isavailable and an ineffective area where inputting a pen stroke isunavailable, the input judging means makes a pen stroke effective whenpen-down coordinates are located in the effective area and a pen strokeineffective when the pen-down coordinates are located in the ineffectivearea.

Therefore, whether edit processing is available or not is determined atthe time the pen-down coordinates are input, allowing the process tosmoothly proceed to-the edit processing.

In order to achieve the above object, another information processingapparatus of the present invention includes:

a screen;

an input pen for inputting coordinates and drawing a line on saidscreen;

position detecting means for detecting coordinates of a position on saidscreen where a pen point of said input pen makes contact with saidscreen;

reference-stroke storing means for storing a plurality of predeterminedreference strokes;

reference-stroke selecting means for comparing a pen stroke made on atext on the screen by the input pen with the reference strokes accordingto coordinates detected by the position detecting means and selecting areference stroke which is closest to the pen stroke;

processing means for editing the text according to an edit instructioncorresponding to the reference stroke selected by the reference-strokeselecting means and inputting coordinates of a position on the screenpointed by the input pen; and

status selecting means for selecting a status of each reference strokein recognition processing of a pen stroke from effective andineffective.

With the information processing apparatus, for example, if the status ofa reference stroke corresponding to an edit command for deletion is setineffective by the status selecting means, a pen stroke is not comparedwith the reference stroke. With this arrangement, even when a pen strokeresembling the reference stroke is input, the possibility of mistakenlyperforming a deletion of a character is eliminated.

It is thus possible to prevent the information processing apparatus fromperforming wrong operations due to a recognition of an unnecessarygesture command.

In order to achieve the above object, still another informationprocessing apparatus of the present invention includes:

a screen;

an input pen for inputting coordinates and drawing a line on saidscreen;

position detecting means for detecting coordinates of a position on saidscreen where a pen point of said input pen makes contact with saidscreen;

reference-stroke storing means for storing a plurality of predeterminedreference strokes;

reference-stroke selecting means for comparing a pen stroke made on atext on the screen by the input pen with the reference strokes accordingto coordinates detected by the position detecting means and selecting areference stroke which is closest to the pen stroke;

processing means for editing the text according to an edit instructioncorresponding to the reference stroke selected by the reference-strokeselecting means and inputting coordinates of a position on the screenpointed by the input pen; and

storing means for temporarily storing information displayed on saidscreen.

With the information processing apparatus, since the document istemporarily stored by the storing means, even when data such as a listof edit commands is displayed on the screen, the document displayed onthe screen is never been lost. For example, if information displayed onthe screen before performing recognition processing is stored in thestoring means, it is possible to perform edit processing on theinformation according to the result of the recognition processing byreading out the information from the storing means and displaying theinformation on the screen after the recognition processing is complete.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of theinvention, reference should be made to the ensuing detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the process of lifting up a pen in aninformation processing apparatus of a first embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the process of a operation to fetchpen-input data and key-input data performed in the informationprocessing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flow -chart showing the process of separately executingpointing entry and gesture entry in the information processingapparatus.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the process of putting down the pen inthe information processing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the process of judging a distance of apen movement depending on whether a symbol on which the pen is put downis a half-size symbol or not.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic structure ofessential sections of the information processing apparatuses of thefirst and second embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating work areas in RAM in theinformation processing apparatuses of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of an pen operationsystem to execute gesture processing in the information processingapparatuses of FIG. 6,

FIG. 9(a) is an explanatory view illustrating X and Y coordinates on ascreen of a display device according to the basic structure of FIG. 8,

FIG. 9(b) is an explanatory view illustrating matrix coordinates on thescreen of the display device according to the basic structure of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory view illustrating a combination of a referencestroke and a gesture command.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory view illustrating a table showing locations ofdots in a reference stroke which refereed to for recognizing a line.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory view illustrating a specific example ofgesture entry performed with the basic structure of FIG. 8.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory view illustrating a specific example ofpointing entry performed with the basic structure of FIG. 8.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory view illustrating a specific example ofhandwritten entry performed with the basic structure of FIG. 8.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory view illustrating an effective area and anineffective area of a tablet in the information processing apparatus interms of gesture entry according to the second embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory view illustrating a pen-button area on thetablet.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory view illustrating a combination of a referencestroke and a gesture command used in the information processingapparatus.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory view illustrating editing performed on thescreen of the information processing apparatus by gesture entry.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a pen operationsystem to execute the gesture processing of FIG. 18.

FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing the process of putting down a pen in theinformation processing apparatus.

FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing the process of lifting up the pen in theinformation processing apparatus.

FIG. 22 is an explanatory view illustrating a trace of the pen on thetablet in the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory view illustrating another example of a traceof the pen on the tablet in the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 24 is a flow chart showing the process of selecting the status of agesture command from effective and ineffective in the informationprocessing apparatus.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory view illustrating a screen showing informationfor use in selecting the status of a gesture command during theselecting operation of FIG. 24.

FIG. 26 is a flow chart showing the process of filing and updating thedata of a gesture command.

FIG. 27 is a flow chart illustrating the process of selecting a mode.

FIG. 28 is an explanatory view illustrating the screen showing data foruse in selecting the status of a gesture.

FIG. 29 is a flow chart showing the process of temporarily saving adocument displayed in the information processing apparatus.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory view illustrating data shown together with thedocument saved in FIG. 29.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following description discusses a first embodiment of the presentinvention with reference to FIGS. 1 to 14.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, an information processing apparatus of thisembodiment has a control section constituted by a CPU (centralprocessing unit) 1, ROM (read only memory) 2, RAM (random access memory)3, a printer controller 4, a display controller 5, an FD (floppy disk)controller 6, an IC card interface 7, a keyboard interface 8, a peninterface 9, and a handwritten editing interface 10. Moving a cursor,entering characters and editing are executed using a key board 15connected to the keyboard interface 8. It is also possible to performthese operations using an input pen 16 connected to the pen interface 9.

The CPU 1 is connected to the above-mentioned sections with a main bus,and functions as a central control section to control the operations ofthe information processing apparatus. Moving the cursor, enteringcharacters and editing are executed by input operations using thekeyboard 15 and the input pen 16.

In addition to the above-mentioned basic functions, the CPU 1 performsthe following functions (A) to (D) so as to separately process pointingor coordinate entry and gesture entry.

(A) Calculating the distance the input pen was moved

The CPU 1 judges whether or not a distance (given by the number of dots)that the input pen 16 is moved on the screen 31 of the display device 12exceeds a predetermined number of dots from pen data (to be describedlater) extracted by the input pen 16. For example, if the pen moves overless than nine dots, a pointing instruction is recognized and pointingprocessing is performed. On the other hand, if the pen moves over morethan eight dots, an editing instruction, i.e., a gesture command isrecognized, and the pen data obtained by the pen movement is sent to thehandwritten editing interface 10 to execute gesture processing. Inshort, the CPU 1 serves as distance judging means and processing means.

(B) Evaluating the number of dots corresponding to the attributes of acharacter

It is also possible to design the CPU 1 to change the number of dotsused as reference in the evaluation, depending on the attributes of acharacter. For example, whether a character to be edited is a half-sizeletter or not is judged. When the character to be edited is judged as ahalf-size letter, if the input pen 16 moves over less than five dots,the pen movement is recognized as a pointing instruction and a pointingoperation is executed. If the input pen 16 moves over more than fourdots, the pen movement is recognized as a gesture command and gestureprocessing is executed. Thus, the CPU 1 also functions as characterchecking means and distance judging means.

(C) Controlling the display of a cursor

The CPU 1 causes the cursor to disappear from the display device 12 whenperforming gesture entry. Then, when a gesture command is recognized andconfirmed by the handwritten editing interface 10, the CPU 1 causes thecursor to appear again on the display device 12. Namely, the CPU 1functions as cursor control means.

(D) Controlling drawing

When the input pen 16 moves over less than nine dots or five dots, aline (pen stroke) is not displayed on the screen 31 of the displaydevice 12. Meanwhile, when the input pen 16 moves over more than eightdots or four dots, a line is coincidentally displayed on the screen. TheCPU 1 functions as drawing control means.

The RAM 2 is a memory into which data can be written and from which datacan be read out at any time, and functions to temporarily store theinput data and the results of the arithmetic ,operations of the CPU 1.As to be described later, the RAM 2 has a plurality of work areas. TheROM 3 is a read only memory for storing programs and data necessary forthe operations of the information processing apparatus.

The printer controller 4 is connected to the printer 11 and controls theprinting operation of the printer 11 according to instructions from theCPU 1. The display controller 5 converts the display data from the CPU 1into a video signal, transmits it to the display device 12, and controlsthe display operation of the display device 12 according to instructionsfrom the CPU 1. The display device 12 includes a screen 31 and a tablet32 to be described later (see FIG. 8).

The FD controller 6 communicates with the CPU 1 and controls a floppydisk device 13. The IC card interface 7 is provided with a slot intowhich an IC card 14 is to be inserted. The IC card interface 7interconnects a CPU and a memory in the IC card 14 with the CPU 1.

The keyboard interface 8 is connected to the keyboard 15 and fetcheskey-input data entered using the keyboard 15. The pen interface 9 isconnected to the input pen 16 such as a stylus, and fetches pen-inputdata produced using the input pen 16 and the tablet 32, to be describedlater.

The handwritten editing interface 10 is connected to the handwritingrecognition dictionary 17, reads out gesture commands stored in thedictionary 17, and recognizes and specifies a gesture commandcorresponding to the pattern of a line drawn with the input pen 16according to the pen-input data fetched by the pen interface 9.

The handwriting recognition dictionary 17 has three tables: (1) ahorizontally-written gesture command table; (2) a handwritten charactertable; and (3) a vertically-written gesture command table. Basic strokesof characters and symbols are classified and stored in the correspondingtable.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the RAM 2 has work areas including a keyboardbuffer 21, a gesture buffer 22, a mode buffer 23, a feature-point buffer24, a code buffer 25, a feature-point-number buffer 26, and a pen-downbuffer 27.

The keyboard buffer 21 stores the key-input data and the pen-input data.The key-input data is produced by pressing a key, and indicates the keypressed. The pen-input data is produced by a movement of the input pen16. The pen-input data includes pen-down data representing a moment atwhich the pen point of the input pen 16 touches the screen 31 of thedisplay device 12, pen-up data representing a moment at which the inputpen 16 comes out of contact with the screen 31, and pen-drag datarepresenting the state in which the input pen 16 is moved in contactwith the screen 31. The pen-input data includes the pen coordinatesindicating the present location of the input pen 16 in contact with thescreen

The gesture buffer 22 temporarily stores the pen-input data from the peninterface 9 so as to transfer the pen-input data to the handwrittenediting interface 10.

The mode buffer 23 stores the following-four gesture modes indicatingthe state of the input pen 16 during the gesture processing. The gesturemodes are set by the CPU 1.

G-PENDOWN . . . the input pen 16 is put down on the screen 31.

G-PENDRAG8IKA . . . the distance the input pen 16 is moved while beingput down, i.e., the length of a line drawn with the input pen 16 is lessthan nine dots (or less than five dots when a specified character is ahalf-size letter).

G-PENDRAG9IZYOU . . . the length of a line drawn with the input pen 16is more than eight dots (or more than four dots when the specifiedcharacter is a half-size letter).

G-PENUP . . . the input pen 16 is lifted up from the screen 31.

The feature-point buffer 24 is a buffer for storing a set of x and ycoordinates of a feature point which is used as a reference duringgesture processing, and has a plurality of areas. Each area stores asingle set of a feature point coordinates. The feature point coordinatesare reference coordinates specifying a character to be edited. Forexample, when only one character is to be edited, the number of thefeature point is one. When a plurality of characters are to be edited,the number of the feature points are more than two. In this informationprocessing apparatus, the coordinates of a feature point which is firstinput when inputting a gesture command are considered as pen-downcoordinates.

The code buffer 25 stores a gesture command corresponding to pen dataextracted by the handwritten editing interface 10. Thefeature-point-number buffer 26 stores the number of the coordinates ofthe feature points stored in the feature-point buffer 24. The pen-downbuffer 27 stores the pen-down coordinates.

Next, the following description discusses a pen operation system toaccomplish gesture entry and handwritten entry with reference to FIG. 8.

The basic structure includes the input pen 16, the display screen 31,the tablet 32, a coordinate extracting section 33, a drawing section 34,a bit map memory 35, a gesture command judging section 36, the gesturecommand table 37, a text editing section 38, a text memory 39, ahandwriting recognition section 40 and a handwritten character table 41.

For example, the screen 31 displays 40 characters in a line, and 80lines of characters as illustrated in FIG. 9(b). The transparent tablet32 as position detecting means is disposed over the screen 31. Whenthe,pen point of the input pen 16 touches the screen 31, the tablet 32generates a change in potential on the contact point to produce pencoordinates. The tablet 32 has X-Y (640×400) coordinates (matrix) so asto correspond to the array of characters on the screen 31 shown in FIG.9(a).

When the input pen 16 draws a line in contact with the tablet 32, thecoordinates of every dot forming the line must be detected. For example,an electrostatic coupling tablet, an electrostriction tablet, amagnetostriction tablet, a high-pressure tablet, an ultrasonic tablet oran electromechanical tablet may be used.

The coordinate extracting section 33 is included ,in the pen interface9, and consecutively extracts the coordinate data (data of the pencoordinates) from the tablet 32.

Like the text editing section 38, the drawing section 34 is included inthe CPU 1 and produces a line image by connecting the pen coordinatesextracted by the coordinate extracting section 33. The line image issent to the bit map memory 35 in the RAM 2 (not shown in FIG. 7),combined with an image displayed on the screen 31, and sent to thescreen 31.

The gesture command judging section 36 is included in the handwrittenediting interface 10, compares the extracted coordinates data withreference stroke data of the gesture commands stored in the gesturecommand table 37, finds a gesture command corresponding to a referencestroke which is closest to the line produced by pen coordinates. Afterrecognizing the command, the gesture command judging section 36 sends tothe text editing section 38 the recognized gesture command, and thepositional information of a character or a series of characters to beedited, recognized based on the coordinates data.

When the CPU 1 judges the pen movement as a pen stroke for entering agesture, i.e., when the input pen 16 moves over more than eight dots,the gesture command judging section 36 performs the comparing operation.When a character to be edited is a half-size letter, if the CPU 1 judgesthe input pen 16 moves over more than four dots, the gesture commandjudging section 36 also performs the comparing operation. In addition tothe gesture recognition function, the gesture command judging section 36outputs the pen-down coordinates as one of the feature pointcoordinates, functioning as edit location specifying means.

The gesture command table 37 stores the reference stroke data indicatedby lines and the corresponding gesture commands, and is included in thehandwriting recognition dictionary 17. For example, the commands shownin FIG. 10 are listed as gesture commands. The square boxes indicated bythe broken lines in FIG. 10 indicate areas where characters are to bedisplayed.

More specifically, for example, the reference stroke of a gesturecommand to delete one character is a line resembling a V shape drawnfrom the left to the right. With this command, a character on a positiongiven by the pen-down coordinates of the reference stroke is deleted. Inthe case of a gesture command to draw an underline, the reference strokeis a horizontal line drawn from the left to the right on a character ora series of character to be underlined.

Such a reference stroke is indicated by circles displayed in 9×9 boxesas shown in FIG. 11. The reference stroke in the shape of a reversed Lindicates a carriage return. The reference stroke as an image of theedit symbol is freely resettable.

The text editing section 38 is included in the CPU 1 and edits acharacter or a series of characters in the text memory 39 correspondingto the positional information in accordance with a ,gesture commandwhich has been recognized by the gesture command judging section 36. Thepositional information and the gesture command are supplied at the sametime. The text editing section 38 receives not only the gesture commandfrom the gesture command judging section 36 but also a command enteredthrough the keyboard 15 so as to enable edit processing using keys.

The text memory 39 is a memory for storing a character or a series ofcharacters displayed on the screen 31, and included in the RAM 2 likethe bit map memory 35. The character data in the text memory 39 iscombined with the image in the bit map memory 35 and displayed on thescreen 31.

The handwriting recognition section 40 is disposed in a locationequivalent to the location of the gesture command judging section 36 interms of processing, i.e., located in the handwritten editing interface10. The handwritten-character table 41 is included in the handwritingrecognition dictionary 17 like the gesture command table 37.

The handwriting recognition section 40 compares the coordinates dataextracted by the coordinate extracting section 33 with the basiccharacter strokes in the handwritten-character table 41. When acharacter code corresponding to a basic character stroke closest to theline drawn based on the coordinates data is recognized, it is sent tothe text editing section 38. Thus, the handwriting recognition section40 performs processing in the same manner as the gesture command judgingsection 36recognizes the gesture command based on the coordinates data.The difference between the handwriting recognition section 40 and thegesture command judging section 36 is that the handwriting recognitionsection 40 does not supply the positional information to the textediting section 38 since there is no need to specify an editing locationwhen inputting characters.

The following description discuses one example of a gesture operation inthe information processing apparatus.

For example, when-deleting a letter "C" from the series of letters shownin FIG. 12, the input pen 16 is put down (a pen-down point as areference point) on the letter "C" and a line in the shape of near V isdrawn on the letter "C". Then, coordinates data is extracted by thecoordinate extracting section 33. The image drawn by the drawing section34 based on the coordinates data is combined with the image displayed onthe screen 31 from the bit map memory 36. Therefore, the line drawn withthe input pen 16 in the above-mentioned manner is simultaneouslydisplayed on the screen 31.

Next, when the input pen 16 is moved away from the tablet 32, thegesture command judging section 36 compares the coordinates data and thegesture commands in the gesture command table 37, and obtains a gesturecommand to delete one character. The positional information Of acharacter to be edited and the gesture command are then transmitted tothe text editing section 38. In the processing by the text editingsection 38, the cursor is moved to a position designated by thepositional information, the letter "C" in the text memory 39 is deletedaccording to the gesture command, and the coordinate extracting section33 goes into a standby state for the next gesture operation.

Next, a pointing operation in the information processing apparatus isdiscussed. When defining a block in the series of letters shown in FIG.13, if the letters "B" and "Y" are pointed by the input pen 16 forexample, a rectangular area having a diagonal line connecting theletters "B" and "Y" is specified. During the pointing, the coordinatesdata and the gesture command are not compared by the gesture commandjudging section 36, and only the positional information is output. Thepointing operation and the gesture operation are separately performed bythe process described later.

In the information processing apparatus, when entering a character, apen board 42 appears on the screen 31 as illustrated in FIG. 14. The penboard 42 has an input space for two characters, and is given by the textediting section 38. For example, when a letter "K" is written in a firstinput area of the pen board 42, the coordinates data of "K" is extractedby the coordinate extracting section 33. Then, an image drawn by thedrawing section 34 in accordance with the coordinates data is combinedwith the image displayed on the screen 31 by the bit map memory 36.

When the input pen 16 is moved to write a character in theabove-mentioned manner, a character corresponding to the pen movement isdisplayed on the pen board 42 on the screen 31. Namely, on the screen31, as the pen point of the input pen 16 moves, dots appear on thescreen 31 as if to draw the character.

When the input pen 16 is moved away from the tablet 32, the coordinatesdata and the reference strokes in the handwritten-character table 41 arecompared by the handwriting recognition section 40 to obtain thematching character code. When the character code is sent to the textediting section 38, the letter "K" is added to the text memory 39through the processing performed by the text editing section 38.

As a result, a letter "K" is displayed in a regular type style next to aletter "J" located at one end of the series of letters on the screen 31in the same manner as it entered using the keyboard 15. The letters areprintable by the printer. Recognizing the character in the first inputarea is performed as the input-pen 16 is put down in the second inputarea of the pen board 42.

When a line in the shape of near Δ shown in FIG. 10 is drawn to input agesture command to input characters by handwriting, the gesture entry isswitched to the handwritten entry. In addition, if a specific type styleis stored in the handwritten-character table 41, when a character iswritten on the pen board 42 by handwriting, the entered character isdisplayed or printed in the stored type style.

The following description discuses a procedure of separately executingthe pointing operation and the gesture operation in the informationprocessing apparatus,

Firstly, as illustrated by the flow chart of FIG. pen-input data orkey-input data is fetched. In this process, pen-input data is fetchedwhen a pen interruption occurs (step 1), while key-input data is fetchedwhen a keyboard interrupt occurs (step 2). The pen-input data or thekey-input data is stored in the keyboard buffer 21 (step 3).

As illustrated by the flow chart of FIG. 3, in the successive process,data is fetched from the keyboard buffer 21 (step 11). Whether the datais pen-input data or not is judged (step 12). If the data is pen-inputdata, whether the pen-input data has been entered by putting the inputpen 16 down or not is evaluated (step 13).

If the pen-input data has been entered by putting the input pen 16 down,a range of coordinates allowing gesture entry is examined (step 14).Then, whether the pen-down coordinates exist within the range or not isevaluated (step 15). If the pen-down coordinates exist within the range,the gesture buffer 22 is set (step 16), and the pen-down coordinates arestored in the pen-down buffer 27 (step 17). The gesture mode is set toG-PENDOWN, and the mode is stored in the mode buffer 23 (step 18). Then,the process returns to step 11. In the case when the pen-downcoordinates do no exist within the range allowing the gesture entry instep 15, the process returns to step 11.

If step 13 judges that the pen-input data is not entered by putting downthe input pen 16, whether the pen-input data is entered by dragging theinput pen 16 is evaluated (step 19). If the pen-input data is entered bydragging the input pen 16, pen-drag processing is performed (step 20)and the process returns to step 19.

Meanwhile, if the pen-input data is not entered by dragging the inputpen 16, the input pen 16 is lifted up (step 21). Then, whether thegesture (edit) command is recognized or not is judged (step 22). Whenthe gesture command is recognized, editing is performed according to thegesture command (step 23). On the other hand, when the gesture commandis not recognized, the process is complete.

When step 12 judges that the data in the keyboard buffer 21 is key-inputdata, whether the gesture entry is proceeding or not is judged (step24). If the gesture entry is in the process, it is judged that a key onthe keyboard 15 is struck during the process and a buzz is given tonotify that an error occurs (step 25). If the gesture entry is not inthe process, an application is performed using the keyboard 15 (step26).

The pen-drag processing in step 20 is performed through the processshown in FIG. 4. Firstly, a gesture mode is loaded (step 31), andwhether the gesture mode is G-PENDOWN or not is determined (step 32). Ifthe gesture mode is not G-PENDOWN, whether the gesture mode isG-PENDRAG8IKA or not is determined (step 33). If the gesture mode is notG-PENDRAG8IKA, whether the gesture mode is G-PENDRAG9IZYOU or not isdetermined (.step 34) If the gesture mode is G-PENDRAG9IZYOU, thegesture buffer 22 is set (step 35).

In this case, the distance between the pen coordinates entered when thegesture mode was set last time and the pen-down coordinates is more thaneight dots, the pen movement is displayed as a line on the screen 31.Therefore, a line is drawn from the pen coordinates to the currentcoordinates of the-input pen 16 (step 36) and the pen-drag processing iscomplete. When the gesture mode is not G-PENDRAG9IZYOU in step 34, thelast gesture mode is G-PENUP, and therefore the line is not drawn.

When the gesture mode in step 33 is G-PENDRAG8IKA, the distance betweenthe pen-down coordinates and the current coordinates of the input pen 16are calculated (step 37). Whether the distance is less than nine dots ornot is evaluated (step 38). If the distance is more than eight dots, thegesture mode is set to G-PENDRAG9IZYOU (step 39), and the cursor iscaused to disappear from the screen 31 (step 40). The .information onthe screen 31 is saved (step 41), and a line is drawn from the pen-downcoordinates to the coordinates entered at the time the gesture mode wasset last time (step 42). The process then moves to step 35.

When the distance between the pen-down coordinates and the currentcoordinates of the input pen 16 is less than nine dots, the gesturebuffer 22 is set (step 43), and the pen-drag processing is complete.When the gesture mode in step 32 is G-PENDOWN, the gesture mode is setto G-PENDRAG8IKA (step 44) and the process moves to step 37.

If pen-drag processing is performed on a document including a half-sizeletter, the operations of steps 37 and 38 are replaced with theoperations shown in the flow chart of FIG. 5. With these operations, thetype of the character at the pen-down position is evaluated (step 51),the distance between the pen-down coordinates and the currentcoordinates of the input pen 16 is calculated (step 52), and whether thecharacter is of a half-size letter or not is judged (step 53).

If the character is of a half-size letter, whether the distancecalculated in step 52 is less than five dots or not is judged. Theprocess moves to step 43 when the distance is less than five dots, whilethe process moves to step 39 when the distance is more than four dots.On the other hand, if the character is not a-half-size letter, whetherthe distance is less than nine dots or not is evaluated (step 55). Ifthe distance is less than nine dots, the process moves to step 43. Whileif the distance is more than eight dots, the process moves to step 39.

More specifically, the pen-up operation of step 21 is performed throughthe process shown in the flow chart of FIG. 1. Firstly, a gesture modeis loaded (step 61), and whether the gesture mode is G-PENDRAG8IKA ornot is evaluated (step 62). If the gesture mode is G-PENDRAG8IKA, thegesture mode is set to G-PENUP (step 63) and a pointing operationincluding moving the cursor is performed.

If the gesture mode in step 62 is not G-PENDRAG8IKA, whether the gesturemode is G-PENDRAG9IZYOU or not is evaluated (step 64). When the gesturemode is not G-PENDRAG9IZYOU, the process moves to step 63. On the otherhand, if the gesture mode is G-PENDRAG9IZYOU, the gesture buffer 22 isset (step 65) and the current data pointer is fetched in the gesturecommand judging section 36 (step 66).

Next, the gesture command judging section 36 compares the coordinatesdata and the gesture command to recognize the gesture (step 67). Then,whether the gesture is recognized or not is judged (step 68). If agesture command is recognized, the code and feature point(s) of thegesture command are fetched in the code buffer 25 and the feature-pointbuffer 26, respectively (step 69). Then, the coordinates of the featurepoint(s) are written in the feature-point buffer 24 (step 70). Also,areas in which the coordinates of the feature point(s) are not stored iscleared (step 71).

A low-tone buzz is given if the gesture command is recognized (step 72).Then, the cursor is caused to appear and the screen 31 is recovered(step 73). Next, the gesture mode is set to G-PENUP (step 74).Meanwhile, if the gesture command is not recognized in step 68, ahigh-tone buzz is given to notify that no gesture command is recognized(step 75), the cursor is caused to appear and the screen 31 is recovered(step 76). Then, the gesture mode is set to G-PENUP (step 77).

As described above, in the information processing apparatus of thisembodiment, the pointing operation including moving the cursor and thegesture entry are distinguished and processed in accordance with adistance of a pen movement. It is therefore not necessary to provide theinput pen 16 with a switch for switching modes between the pointingoperation and the gesture entry. Moreover, the above-mentionedprocessing is executable on a half-size letter.

In the information processing apparatus, in the pen-drag processing, ifa pen movement is recognized as a gesture, the cursor is caused todisappear. And when the pen 16 is lifted up and a gesture command isrecognized, the cursor is caused to appear again. Therefore, the linedisplayed on the screen 31 does not overlap the cursor, achieving aclear view.

Moreover, in the information processing apparatus, the line is displayedonly when the input pen 16 is dragged by a distance more than apredetermined dots required to recognize a gesture command. Namely, theline which is not recognized as a gesture command is not displayed.Furthermore, since the line is displayed as the input pen 16 is moved,it is possible to check the line.

In addition, since the information processing apparatus uses thepen-down coordinates as one of the feature points of a gesture command,a character or a series of characters to be edited is easily specified.More specifically, when editing a character, the input pen 16 specifiesthe position of the character to be edited and the cursor is moved tothe position. When specifying an editing location by a gesture, sincethe position of the cursor is specified by the pointing operation usingthe input pen 16, improved handling is achieved. Since there is no needto set a editing reference position with respect to each gesturecommand, a control program of editing is simplified.

EMBODIMENT 2

The following description discusses a second embodiment of the presentinvention with reference to FIGS. 6, 15 to 30. The components having thesame function as those in the above-mentioned embodiment are designatedby the same code and their description is omitted.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, basically, an information processing apparatusof this embodiment has the same structure as that of the apparatus ofthe first embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 15, a tablet 32 of the information processing apparatushas an effective area 32a (indicated by slanting lines) in which gestureentry is available, and an ineffective area 32b having an icon whichtakes precedence over the gesture entry.

Also, as illustrated in FIG. 16, the effective area 32a includes a penbutton area 32c where a particular function is selected by a pointingoperation of the input pen 16. The pen button area 32c takes precedenceover the effective area 32a in terms of pen entry. More specifically,when the input pen 16 is put down in the pen button area 32c, pen-buttonprocessing is executed.

For example, the information processing apparatus employs gesturecommands shown in FIG. 17. More particularly, when ending a line, theinput pen 16 is first moved downward to draw a vertical straight lineand then moved to the left to draw a straight line perpendicular to thevertical line. When inputting a space, the input pen 16 is first moveddownward to draw a vertical straight line and then moved to the right todraw a straight line perpendicular to the vertical line. To delete acharacter, a loop is drawn.

These symbols are drawn on the screen 31 as shown in FIG. 18. When anedit symbol to end a line is input on the position of "7", a series ofnumeric characters after "7" is moved to the next line. When an editsymbol for space is input on the numeric character "8", a space for onecharacter is inserted between "7" and "8". When an edit symbol to deletea character is input on the position of "5", the character "5" iserased.

As illustrated in FIG. 19, a pen operation system of the informationprocessing apparatus includes a gesture judging section 51, a linejudging section 52, a flag specifying section 53, a coordinate databuffer 54, a command selecting section 55, a command buffer 56 and adocument buffer 57 in addition to the pen operation system of theinformation processing apparatus of the first embodiment.

The gesture judging section 51 judges whether the input pen 16 is putdown in the effective area 32a or the ineffective area 32b. If the inputpen 16 is put down in the effective area 32a, the gesture judgingsection 51 further judges whether the input pen 16 is put down in thepen-button area 32c or not. When an ON flag to be described later isset, the gesture judging section 51 does not make the above-mentionedjudgements, treats the all the input coordinate data as effective data,and sends the data to the line judging section 52.

When the input pen 16 is put down in the ineffective area 32b, thegesture judging section 51 makes gesture entry unavailable, and allowsother types of entry, for example, icon entry. While, when the input pen16 is put down in the pen-button area 32c, the gesture judging section51 makes gesture entry unavailable, and allows pen-button entry.

When the gesture judging section 51 judges the input pen is put down inthe effective area 32a but not in the pen-button area 32c, the linejudging section 52 sets the ON flag to the flag specifying section 53,allowing gesture processing. The line judging section 52 storescoordinate data of pen data in coordinate data buffer 54 assigned as amemory area in the RAM 2 as the ON flag is set. Moreover, the linejudging section 52 resets the flag specifying section 53 when all thecoordinate data stored in the coordinate data buffer 54 is output to thegesture command judging section 36.

The gesture judging section 51, the line judging section 52 and the flagspecifying section 53 are included in the pen interface 9. Therefore,when the input pen 16 is put down in the effective area 32a but not inthe pen-button area 32c, even if the input pen 16 is lifted up from theineffective area 32b after drawing a line, the gesture processing isavailable. Namely, even when the input pen 16 is moved into theineffective area 32b after being put down in the effective area 32a, thegesture entry mode does not switch to the icon entry mode. The peninterface 9 determines which input mode is to be allowed according to anarea where the input pen 16 is put down. Namely, the pen interface 9also functions as input judging means.

The command selecting section 55 determines whether the gesture commandjudging section 36 is accessible to each of the reference strokes in thegesture command table 37. The results are input by input pen such as theinput pen 16 and the keyboard 15 via the text editing section 38. Thecommand selecting section selects the status of each reference strokefrom accessible and inaccessible states. The command selecting section55 may also classify the reference strokes into groups, and determineswhether each group of reference strokes is accessible or not. Inaddition, the command selecting section 55 functions as status selectingmeans, grouping means and mode selecting means.

The command buffer 56 stores a table (see FIG. 25) showing whethercommands corresponding to the reference strokes are accessible or not,and freely retrieves the table, and sends it to the text editing section38 so to be displayed by the display device 12. Moreover, when thereference strokes are classified into groups, the command buffer 56stores a table (see FIG. 28) showing the classification of the groups soas to select a gesture status mode from a mode in which, for example,all the gesture command are ineffective, a mode in which only gesturecommand specified are effective, and a mode in which all the gesturecommands are effective. Thus, the command buffer 56 functions as filingmeans.

The document buffer 57 as storing means temporarily stores the adocument in the text memory 39 displayed on the display device 12 whenthe line drawn with the input pen 16 is judged as a gesture. At thistime, the document in the text memory 39 is read out by the text editingsection 38 and is transferred to the document buffer 57. When the nextdocument is stored in the document buffer 57, the last stored documentis cleared.

The following description discusses how gesture processing operationsare executed in the information process apparatus. Firstly, a process ofdetermining whether the gesture processing is executable usingpen-button coordinates is discussed.

As illustrated in the flow chart of FIG. 20, the input pen 16 is putdown on the tablet 32 and the pen-input data is sent to the coordinateextracting section 33 to detect pen-down coordinates (step 81). Next,whether the input pen 16 is put down in the effective area 32a or not isjudged (step 82). If the input pen 16 is put down in the ineffectivearea 32b, gesture entry is unavailable and the process is complete.

On the other hand, when the input pen 16 is put down in the effectivearea 32a, whether the input pen 16 is put down in the pen-button area32c or not is judged (step 83). If the input pen 16 is put down in thepen-button area 32c, the pen-button processing is performed (step 84).

While, when the input pen 16 is put down out of the pen-button area 32c,the pen-down coordinates are stored. Then, whether the input pen 16 isto be moved over more than eight dots of consecutive coordinate valuesis judged (step 85). At this time, if adjacent dots have consecutivevalues in at least one coordinate direction, i.e., the x-coordinate ory-coordinate direction are judged.

If the input pen 16 is moved over more than eight dots of consecutivevalues, gesture processing is executable and the ON flag is set (step86). When the ON flag is set, even if the input pen 16 is moved into theineffective area 32b, a pointing operation of the input pen 16 becomesineffective in the ineffective area 32b. When the ineffective area 32bincludes icons, an inputting operation using the icons becomesunavailable. Meanwhile, when the input pen 16 is moved over less thannine dots, if the values the coordinates data are not consecutive,pointing operation becomes available (step 87).

It is also possible to set the ON flag to allow the gesture entry priorto the judgement of step 86 by reversing the order of step 85 and step86. In this case, if the coordinate values of the dots are notconsecutive, the ON flag is reset and the pointing operation becomesavailable.

Then, when the input pen 16 is moved on the tablet 32 to input an imageand is lifted up, the process shown by the flow chart of FIG. 21 isperformed.

Firstly, whether the ON flag is set or not is judged (step 91). If theON flag is not set, the input operation of the input pen 16 isdetermined irrelevant to gesture entry, making the gesture entryineffective.

If the ON flag is set in step 91, the gesture command judging section 36first normalizes all the coordinate data of the input pen 16 from thepen-down coordinate to the pen-up coordinate, and stores them in thecoordinate data buffer 54 for recognition (step 92). The gesture commandjudging section 36 executes recognition processing of coordinate data(step 93). The line drawn according to the coordinate data is comparedwith the data of the reference strokes of gesture commands stored in thegesture command table 37.

When the line is recognized (step 94), the corresponding editingoperation is executed (step 95) and the gesture-driven editing iscomplete. When the line is not recognized, an error message is given(step 96).

In the information processing apparatus, even when the input pen 16 islifted up from an area other than the effective area 32a, the gestureprocessing is executable if the ON flag is set. Additionally, in thecase where the input pen 16 is put down in the effective area 32a butout of the pen-button area 32c, even if the coordinates successive tothe pen-down coordinates are located outside the effective area 32a butwithin the pen-button area 32c, the coordinates are judged effective andgesture-command recognition processing is performed.

With this arrangement, as illustrated in FIG. 22 for example, when theinput pen 16 is put down on a point A in the effective area 32a, a line61 drawn with the input pen 16 is effective even if the input pen 16 islifted up from a point B in the ineffective area 32b. Furthermore, evenif the input pen 16 is moved into the ineffective area 32b after beingput down in the effective area 32a, the line 61 drawn with the input pen16 is effective.

However, as illustrated in FIG. 23 for example, when the input pen 16 isput down on a point C in the ineffective area 32b, the gesture entrybecomes ineffective. In this case, for example, the icons provided inthe ineffective area 32b become available.

On the other hand, when the input pen 16 is put down in the effectivearea 32a, the gesture entry is available. In this case, even when theinput pen 16 is moved into the ineffective area 32b or the pen-buttonarea 32c, the line 61 drawn with the input pen 16 is effective, enablingthe gesture entry.

This arrangement enables part of the gesture processing, such as readingout the gesture command table 27, to be performed at the time the inputpen 16 is put down in the effective area 32a and a gesture entry isjudged effective, thereby improving the efficiency of gestureprocessing. Moreover, since the user can draw a line without concerningthe effective area 32a, ineffective area 32b and pen button area 32c, agesture is input more easily.

In the gesture processing, a command is selected through the processshown in the flow chart of FIG. 24.

When an instruction to perform command selecting processing is giventhrough the input device such as the keyboard 15, all the recognizablecommands are read out (step 101), and the commands and their status(whether effective or not) are displayed by the display device 12 asshown in FIG. 25 (step 102). Then, the status of each of these commands,i.e., effective or ineffective is selected by using for example solidand open circles through the keyboard 15 (step 103).

Next, if the status of the gesture command has been changed or not isjudged (step 104). When changing the status of the commands, status datais fetched by depressing the enter key (step 105) and the status isupdated (step 106).

Then, the display device 12 is cleared (step 107) and the processing iscomplete. On the other hand, when the status is not updated, the escapekey on the keyboard 15 is depressed and processing is moved to step 107.

In the command selection, a filing/updating operation is performedthrough the process shown in the flow chart of FIG. 26. Firstly, thefiling/updating operation is started by the instruction entered throughthe input device such as the input pen 16 and the keyboard 15. Then, anoperation to be executed is selected between the filing operation andthe updating operation (step 111). If it is the filing operation, allthe current status data is displayed by the display device 12 (step112). When the data is checked by the user, file names are input usingthe keyboard 15 (step 113). Then, the file names and their status dataare stored in the command buffer 56 (step 114) and the filing operationis complete.

If the updating operation is selected in step 111, a file name isspecified (step 115) and the file name in the command buffer 56 issearched (step 116). Status data corresponding to the specified commandis displayed by the display device 12 (step 117), and the status data ofthe selected file is update (step 118) to complete the updatingoperation.

In the information processing apparatus, since the status of each of thegesture commands is individually set to effective or ineffective, it ispossible to make only a gesture command required by the user effective.This arrangement prevents unwanted gesture commands from beingmistakenly recognized. Moreover, the number of gesture commands the userneeds to remember is reduced. In other words, the user does not have toremember unnecessary gesture commands. Furthermore, as the rate of falserecognition is decreased, edit processing required by the user isaccomplished with accuracy.

With this structure, when a plurality of users use the same informationprocessing apparatus, each user can select the status of gesturecommands (whether the gesture commands are effective or ineffective) andstore the results in its own file. This structure allows each of theusers to always use a desired gesture command freely, enabling editprocessing to be easily performed in accordance with each user's editingrequests.

Furthermore, with the information processing apparatus, even when everyuser uses different gesture commands to perform a particular function,the rate of performing erroneous editing operations due to unnecessarycommands is decreased. Thus, the efficiency of creating a document isimproved.

Additionally, when selecting a mode depending on the effective orineffective status in the command selecting processing, the operationsshown in the flow chart of FIG. 27 are performed. There are three modes,an effective mode, a partly effective mode and an ineffective mode. Inthe effective mode, all the gesture commands are effective regardless oftheir status. In the partly effective mode, only gesture commandsclassified into the effective group are effective. In the ineffectivemode, all the gesture commands are ineffective regardless of theirstatus.

If an interrupt occurs during the gesture processing due to an input toselect a mode given through the keyboard 15, the input pen 16 or otherinput device, a gesture-mode selecting menu is displayed on the displaydevice 12 as shown in FIG. 28 (step 121). Next, one mode is selectedfrom the three modes using solid and open circles displayed on thescreen 31 using the keyboard 15 (step 122). Then, whether to update themode to the newly selected mode or not is determined (step 123).

When updating to the selected gesture mode, the enter key on thekeyboard 15 is depressed to fetch the data .of the selected mode (step124). The menu displayed on the display device 12 is cleared (step 125)to complete the gesture-mode selecting processing. When the mode is notneeded to be updated, the escape key on the keyboard 15 is depressed andthe process moves to step 125.

By grouping the ineffective group of the gesture commands, falserecognition of gesture commands is prevented. For example, a gesturecommand for erasure is made unavailable while making other gesturecommands available by selecting the partly effective mode. In this case,when the gesture command for erasure is mistakenly input, the gesturecommand is not accepted, preventing a character or a series ofcharacters from being mistakenly erased.

This structure eliminates the need to recreate the text which has beenerased by the mistakenly input gesture command. Therefore, even the userwho is not accustomed to using gesture entry can easily use theapparatus.

In addition, a document displayed on the displayed device 12 during thegesture processing is stored through the process shown by the flow chartof FIG. 29.

When a line drawn with the input pen 16 is judged as a gesture, adisplayed document is saved and temporarily stored in the documentbuffer 57 (step 131). Then, whether a block of text to be edited isspecified or not is judged (step 132). If the block is not specified,various data is displayed on the screen 31 of the display device 12(step 133). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 30, the trace of theinput pen 16, a block of text to be edited by the gesture command, agesture command, a plurality of gesture commands, and a message askingif the gesture command is required to be cancelled are displayed.

A character to be edited by the gesture command is pointed by the inputpen 16 and its coordinates are stored (step 134). The position of thecharacter on the screen 31 is detected and stored (step 135). Theoperations of steps 132 to 134 are repeatedly performed until a block oftext to be edited is specified.

When a block of text to be edited is specified in step 132, the gesturerecognition operation of the input gesture command is performed by thegesture command judging section 36 (step 136). The document saved instep 131 is displayed again on the display device 12 (step 137), and thecharacters in the document are edited on the screen 31 according to therecognized gesture command (step 138).

Then, whether the execution of the gesture command is to be cancelled ornot is judged (step 139). If the execution of the gesture command is notrequired to be cancelled, the edit processing is complete. On the otherhand, if the execution of the gesture command is required to becancelled, the document saved in step 131 .is displayed again on thescreen 31 (step 140).

In the information processing apparatus, since the document displayed onthe display device 12 is saved in the document buffer 57 beforeperforming gesture processing, the saved document is soon displayedagain when the execution of a gesture command is cancelled.

Therefore, even when various data shown in FIG. 30 is displayed,redisplaying a saved document, executing a gesture command, cancellingan editing operation are promptly performed.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same maybe varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as adeparture from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all suchmodifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intendedto be included within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An information processing apparatus comprising:ascreen; an input pen for inputting coordinates and drawing a line onsaid screen; position detecting means for detecting coordinates of aposition on said screen where a pen point of said input pen makescontact with said screen; reference-stroke storing means for storing aplurality of predetermined reference strokes; reference-stroke selectingmeans for comparing a pen stroke made on a text on said screen by saidinput pen with the reference strokes according to coordinates detectedby said position detecting means and selecting a reference stroke whichis closest to the pen stroke; processing means for editing the textaccording to an edit instruction corresponding to the reference strokeselected by said reference-stroke selecting means and inputtingcoordinates of a position on said screen pointed by said input pen;character checking means for judging whether a character on which saidinput pen is put down is a half-size character or not; distance judgingmeans for judging whether a distance said input pen is moved on saidscreen exceeds a predetermined distance, a value of said predetermineddistance being determined based on whether the character is a half-sizecharacter or not; and processing selecting means for selecting aprocessing to be executed by said processing means by judging a penmovement which is shorter than the predetermined distance as coordinatesinput while judging a pen movement which is longer than thepredetermined distance as a pen stroke.
 2. The information processingapparatus according to claim 1, further comprising cursor control meansfor causing a cursor displayed in said screen to disappear when saidsecond distance Judging means judges that the pen stroke exceeds thepredetermined distance, and causing said cursor to appear when saidprocessing means recognizes an edit instruction.
 3. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising drawingcontrol means for prohibiting a pen stroke which is judged to be shorterthan the predetermined distance by said second distance judging meansfrom being displayed, while causing a pen stroke which is judged to belonger than the predetermined distance by said distance judging means tobe displayed on said screen coincidentally with the pen movement.
 4. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, furthercomprising edit location specifying means for specifying a point onwhich said input pen is put down as an edit location,wherein saidprocessing means executes edit processing on an edit .location specifiedby said edit location specifying means.
 5. An information processingapparatus comprising:a screen; an input pen for inputting coordinatesand drawing a line on said screen; a position detector for detectingcoordinates of a position on said screen where a point of said input pencontacts said screen; a reference-stroke memory for storing a pluralityof predetermined reference pen strokes; a reference-stroke recognizerfor comparing a pen stroke drawn on text displayed on said screen withthe predetermined reference strokes according to coordinates detected bysaid position detector and selecting one of the predetermined referencestrokes which is a closest match to the drawn pen stroke; a text editorfor editing the text according to an edit instruction corresponding tothe selected reference stroke and storing coordinates in a displaymemory of a position on said screen pointed to by said input pen; and aprocessor for determining a size of a character in said text, judgingwhether a distance said input pen is moved on said screen exceeds apredetermined distance which varies depending on the size of thecharacter, and selecting a point editing procedure when a pen movementless than the predetermined distance is interpreted as coordinate inputand a gesture editing procedure when a pen movement greater than thepredetermined distance is interpreted as a pen stroke.
 6. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 5, furthercomprising:a cursor controller for erasing a cursor displayed on saidscreen when the pen stroke exceeds the predetermined distance, andredisplaying said cursor when said text editor recognizes an editinstruction corresponding to the selected reference stroke.
 7. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 5, furthercomprising:a drawing controller for prohibiting a pen stroke judged tobe less than the predetermined distance from being displayed anddisplaying a pen stroke judged to be greater than the predetermineddistance on said screen coincidentally with movement of the pen.